My niece sent me a link to a site that makes blessing bags. Love this idea. You can make these bags up as a group and put them in your trunk. We have all seen homeless people that we have wanted to help but have held back because it's not a good idea to give them money. Click hereto visit the site for ideas of what to put in the bags. Be sure to read the comments, there are a lot of great ideas there. One idea was to put wipes instead of the soap so the smell of the soap doesn't transfer to the food.Coupons are a great way to get products for these bags. They can end up costing next to nothing using coupons.

Another week, another FAIL . No newspapers!! What is a girl to do to get a Sunday paper? Do I have to meet the paper delivery people at 4:00 am to get a paper? With my luck, I'm a little suspicious about that working too. As you can see, I have 2 coupons. (Did I hear an atta girl). So for all my hard work I have 2 coupons that I have to use by Friday , for a particular store, or they are useless. My husband said, have the papers delivered. Why didn't I think of that...so another sad week with no coupons...I will survive and I will find coupons.

It's Sunday and my first day to start collecting coupons. Excitement is mounting....I can hardly contain myself.... I sent my son to find my FIRST Sunday newspaper. After our lunch guests left, I sat down armed with sharp scissors...my family looks on.... I open the paper....nothing....looked a second time....no coupons....looked at the front of the paper, it said $235 in coupons inside. My son starts laughing hysterically....someone helped themselves to extra coupons. So I just sent him back to town to get another paper, reminding him to check this time...I asked him to put on a sad face and tell the clerk someone took his mommy's coupon from her paper..I'm hoping a compassionate clerk will say, "here, take her these too"..He laughed all the way out the door. So learn from my lesson and always check your paper to make sure the coupons are there before you leave the store.With that said. I want to share a site with you that has alot of helpful info for us coupon virgins...that's what she called us...lol. On The Krazy Coupon Lady she shows you how to set up your binder and has pages you can download for this notebook. Lots of info for us beginners.I don't recall any tips telling you to double check your newspaper to make sure your coupons are actually there....Ok, Ok....I'm over it..kindaHappy couponing!!! If you can find them..lol

Love, love, love this tool. Sale items are organized by states and stores. Much easier, and I prefer easy. You can pick the store you are going to shop and print out a list in alphabetical order of all sales. Take this list and pull your coupons from your stash for more savings. This list easier than flipping the sale pages over and over while shopping. Everything is so organized.If you know of other sites that make couponing easier, please post them here...all of us newbies will appreciate any info we can get...thanks

This morning was my first day grocery shopping with my new found coupon knowledge. I saved $32.94. My total $120.98..not bad for a first trip with only store specials, but nowhere near what I'm shooting for. Other things I acquired from the trip:

$5.00 coupon for next shopping trip

$1.00 off any paper towel (up to $5.00)

.10 more cents off my gas per gallon (fuel perks)

Next week I will be armed with coupons clipped from the Sunday paper.....let the games begin. Here are some things I learned while researching coupons.

Food Lion has coupons that you can add to your mvp card...no clipping....yaaa!! Go to the site and look for savings and promotions at the top of the page.

On the Bi Lo web site you can get extra fuel perks(some as much as 15 cents off per gallon of gas) for choosing participating products, many which are already on sale. If you haven't tried the gas program Bil Lo offers, you are missing some great savings. The hardest part is keeping your kids from fussing over whose turn it is to get fuel perks.

I watched an extreme couponing show last night and must say I was impressed with the way these ladies saved on groceries. How exciting it must be to watch mega dollars come off your grocery bill when they finish scanning the coupons.The most I have ever saved on a grocery trip was $31.00, and believe me I was thrilled. So it got me to thinking, if I can do that with in store sales, with a little effort, I could save a lot. One thing I refuse to do is dumpster diving for coupons....one, I can't get my full figure into the dumpster, and two, I would hate be totally embarrassed to get caught in one. I do want to hold on to my dignity during this process.I am starting my research and I will let you know the results. It sounds like fun as long as I don't have to work 60 hours a week to bring home $60 worth of free groceries. Anyway, we will see how my non extreme couponing turns out.